This is the 2nd of a two-parter. Last episode ended with Autobot leader Cerebros leaping to defend his Headmaster warriors. His sword drawn, Cerebros leaps out of Fortress to smash the Decepticon Headmasters but they launch a bomb at him and he strikes it, which is where part one ended:

Boo yah.

Episode 2 begins with the fallout from that explosion. Read on to see what goes down. And by the way, MegaZarak is just another name for Scorponok.

Fortress lies in a crater, untransformed.

Nothing to see here.

Inside, Brainstorm and Highbrow are in the medical bay. For some reason, Hardhead and Chromedome are just tougher and are fine. The medical bay consists of a glass dome on a table. I can’t imagine that’d do much but on the other hand, there’s not a scratch on Brainstorm and Highbrow so maybe they’re faking it.

They don’t seem too injured.

Daniel is less concerned with the injured Autobots and more interested in why Fortress Maximus didn’t transform. Essentially, he no longer has enough energy after getting hit with that bomb.

Papa, may I go to school one day?

Wheelie goes from totally calm to freakout in no time. You know what? I just realized he has 4 wheels but is called Wheelie. That’s pretty stupid!

A real hero.

Meanwhile, on planet Chaar, Zarak isn’t worried about Cerebros showing up in Fortress Maximus. He figures he’ll just kill two birds with one stone by blowing the planet up. And keep in mind, he’s still in shadow. Who is he?!

Interplanetary man of mystery.

In Fortress, Spike figures out that Cerebros’ energy was drained by a plasma bomb, the same energy created when Cybertron was destroyed. He guesses the Decepticons will blow up Mars to create more plasma energy. Then Chromedome just sort of guesses where they should look next. And because he wants it more than ever before, he’s right this time.

Yeah, maybe.

The Autobots go to a nearby crater that houses some of the bombs and are attacked by the Decepticons still there. It’s a generic fight but eventually the Decepticons all fly away. Here’s some fight highlights. Mindwipe seems to insult bats even though he turns into one:

He should use this more.

Raiden, the Trainbots gestalt form, thanks Hardhead:

Time out for good manners.

Hardhead doesn’t know why the Decepticons are “pulling out”:

Because the Decepticons retreat, Cerebros wants to know what the Decepticon plan is, even though they kind of already know. He sends Twincast, on Earth, to spy on the Decepticons. He heads to their Earth base and has his cassettes distract the Decepticons. The first thing that happens? Steeljaw shoots a bomb out of his mouth.

That happened.

Dirge is one of the Decepticons guarding the base so that’s kind of awesome. Anytime a season one or two character has a line, I’m happy.

Yeah it is. Good job, Dirge!

Twincast sneaks in and has Rewind spy on Sixshot, who is summoned by Zarak to meet him on planet Chaar with the Headmasters.

This is a job for Rewind! Screw Eject, he stinks.

Sixshot hops on a spacebridge and Twincast follows him. On Chaar, the Decepticons watch a monitor screen which shows planet Zarak break apart to reveal the secret project inside. It’s a Decepticon City. Twincast is flabbergasted.

Gracious!

At long last, Zarak’s plan is coming to fruition! And in a moment we’re going to see him. Unfortunately, he does not step out of the shadows. Nope. Instead, he’s just there. And the first time we finally see him, he’s just a regular robot and he’s sitting down. What an awful reveal after 14 episodes of build-up! Here he is:

It’s just l’il ol’ me.

So then the huge city transforms into a massive scorpion. The Decepticons are all terrified and impressed. No one comments on the purple and green color scheme.

It has claws AND a stinger.

Zarak and the Decepticons board his new robot, dubbed Scorponok. And then the scorpion flies through space at warp speed because why not?

That’s warp speed all right.

It arrives as the Autobots and Decepticons battle on Mars. Hardhead takes a wild guess at what he sees and he’s correct.

He stares into space wistfully a lot.

Zarak then turns on his magic monitor to see what’s going on on Mars. Just some combiners wrestling. We don’t see Soundblaster taking bets but I’m sure he did.

Whatcha gonna do when Abominus runs wild over you?

With the new reinforcements, the Decepticons head to set off the bombs. Hardhead is not having it. He loses his temper and uses some unfortunate language.

Scorponok dwarfed even Raiden and the Headmaster’s laser blasts do bupkis against it. Their only hope is Fortress Maximus but he doesn’t have enough energy to transform. Regardless, Daniel never loses his faith.

Maybe he’s right.

Unfortunately, Daniel is not right. Scorponok transforms into a huge robot (Zarak forms the head) and he just stomps on Fortress Maximus repeatedly, keeping the Autobots from going after the Horrorcons, who are about to detonate the bombs.

Stompin’ a mudhole in his ass.

And then the Horrocons actually set off their bombs. Yeah, none of the Autobots stop them and the planet starts to erupt.

Another Autobot failure.

The planet is for real being destroyed but Cerebros insists he can’t leave Fortress Maximus behind. I understand that it’s a valuable weapon, but is it really worth the life of the Autobot leader to simply stay behind with it? It isn’t the Titanic full of women and children. Cerebros orders the rest of the Autobots to evacuate and they do.

You really could abandon it.

The other Autobots fly away and Mars explodes. But then something happens that Scorponok didn’t plan on. Fortress Maximus absorbs the plasma energy of the explosion himself and emerges transformed.

Big oversight on Zarak’s part.

Fortress puts his Master Sword halfway through Scorponok’s shoulder so the Decepticons quickly retreat. Everyone survived but Mars did get blown up. It’s gone. Cerebros apologizes to the only one who cares that a planet is gone… Daniel.

Sorry, because this probably changes the orbits of every planet in the solar system and Earth should be doomed.

So that’s that. Not a victory for either side, in my opinion. Apparently next week, there’s a return of a character. Not sure who yet since I recap these as I watch them. Join me next week, won’t you?